Look out Disney World, I’m Comin’ to Run
I’ve got my first half marathon coming up at the end of this month, but I’m not nearly as excited for it as I am for my first marathon which will be in January. Of course, it could have everything to do with where I’ll be running my first marathon. You see, if you know me by now, you know I don’t do anything on a small scale. No, *shakes head* running a marathon in my hometown for my first one isn’t good enough…nope, not for me…
*shouts it from the mountain* I’M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD FOR MY FIRST MARATHON!!!
Yes, I’m going to Disney World for my first marathon. Or maybe running the marathon is just a bonus of my trip to Disney World…hahaha…whatever the case may be, I’m going to run in the 2009 WALT DISNEY WORLD® Marathon.
There’s so much excitement in me right now, it’s another thing I’m counting down towards, it’s bigger than Christmas! I’m gonna hit all the Disney World parks in one day! I’ve never even been to all the parks let alone gone to more than one in a single day.
Imagine with me if you will:
The race starts outside of Epcot (for about a mile), we go in through the main entrance and past the big golfball thing, which according to my sources is Spaceship Earth. And then it looks like I’ll exit Epcot somewhere between China and Germany.
During miles 4-8, I’ll run on the open road past Epcot heading towards the Walt Disney World® Speedway. By the time I get to the Speedway, I’ll have run 8 miles. I’ll run around the Speedway, maybe see Disney’s Polynesian Resort across the Speedway parking lot and then enter mile 9.
Mile 9 will be spent running past Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and Disney’s Contemporary Resort.
I’ll go past the Magic Kingdom right by Space Mountain (my most favorite Magic Kingdom ride). We wind our way to the front of the Magic Kingdom and we enter the park. I’ll go up Main Street, U.S.A through Tomorrowland near the Astro Orbiter (aka the rockets), through Fantasyland and then…wait for it…I get to run through Cinderella’s Castle. It appears that I’ll then run through Liberty Square, past Adventureland, and through Frontierland, exiting not far from Splash Mountain (which is usually the first ride I ride). All that is only one whole mile.
For miles 11-13, it looks as though I’ll run with the view of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa in sight.
And then, from the map I’m looking at, things appear to get boring. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I was running past a golf course.
Luckily, at Mile 15, I’m entering Disney’s Animal Kingdom. As far as I can guess, it will be near the Affection Section (read: petting zoo. goats, pigs, llamas, etc). By mile 16, I’ll be nearing Expedition Everest (I rode that about 6 times when I was at Disney World this past year, it really is the only reason to go to the Animal Kingdom, in my opinion of course.) Then it’s through Dinoland U.S.A® (which really got lame in my opinion, it was better in 1999). Then we go to the front of the park, past Rainforest Cafe and we’re back on the road. By this time, I’m at mile 18 and I only have 8.2 more miles to run.
During miles 18-22 it looks like I will run past Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort, Disney’s All-Star Music Resort, Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort, Disney’s Wide World Of Sports Complex, and Disney’s Blizzard Beach.
And then finally, at mile 22.5ish, I get to enter Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I’ll enter near The Twilight Tower of Terror (which is my favorite ride in this park). I’m not sure, but it looks like we’re running behind Mickey Avenue Animation Courtyard, through the Backlot, around Mickey’s Sorcerer hat, down Hollywood Boulevard and then out of the park.
Mile 24 will be spent running past Disney’s BoardWalk Villas, Disney’s BoardWalk Inn, The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort, Disney’s Yacht Club Resort, and Disney’s Beach Club Resort. And then it’s back to Epcot.
I’ll enter Epcot via France and begin the last 1.2 miles of my very first marathon. I’ll run past Morocco, Japan, America, Italy, Germany, China, Norway, and Mexico before heading back into Future World and towards Spaceship Earth.
I’ll finish my first marathon in the Epcot Parking lot.
Do you need to visualize the path, yeah, I can’t blame you, it’s a lot to follow. Here’s the map of the Walt Disney World Marathon course.
I’d like to think I’d be ready to go ride some rides, but I’m thinking I might need lunch first at the RainForest Cafe once I’m done.
I must admit, now that I’ve mentally run through my first marathon, it’s a bit daunting. But, I think if I can keep the pace that I seem to be stuck with right now in running I’ll finish in just over 5 and a half hours.
It really is really exciting, I can’t wait! 
Chunky Monkey 10k Run 2008
Chunky Monkey, who wouldn’t respond to a run named that, it’s named after a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor. The thought of getting Ben and Jerry’s ice cream after a 10k run was an added bonus in getting me out there to run.
I hadn’t done a 10k since the Bolder Boulder. In fact, since being released by the doctor to return to running the furthest I’ve managed to run is 4.5 miles. I really didn’t have any goals other than to 1) finish the run and 2) beat my Bolder Boulder time of 1:23:(and some change). I managed to do both, but it wasn’t easy.
We had to do one lap around the Valley High school track before we were off on our trail, so while I’m making my way to the track I introduce myself to another woman who was making her way to the track. She had a duathlon hat on so it was easy to strike up a conversation with her. I joined her and her friends at the back of the pack on the track and when the horn blew I found that their pace was perfect for me and so I was gonna stick with them. (You see, it was supposed to be all about pace this race. Pace is something I have problems with simply because I want to get out there and go, and I want to go fast. Not pacing myself is also what kindof killed me in the first mile in the Bolder Boulder.)
Running with these women was cool because they had a walk run strategy which is what I like. They would run for 4 minutes and then walk a minute, and it was cool because one of them was wearing something and so it would beep at a 4 minute mark and then again at a 1 minute mark so we knew when to walk and when to begin running again. I didn’t have the brains to ask what it was that they had but whatever it is that they had, I want one, it’s far easier than looking at my watch every so often.
I got about 1.5 miles before my ribs were hurting, on both sides, and (as I so thought to myself) my left intestine (I really have no clue what it was, but it hurt). I guess that’s what’s referred to as a stitch in my side, and I said so, I have a stitch in my side and I slowed down. I knew I had to take deep breaths, and I was told to take deep breaths. The problem with this was, it hurt to take deep breaths. Somehow by mile 3 I was ok again. At about 3 and a half miles I split from the women I was with because I wanted to go a little bit faster than they were going (we had slowed down a bit). I had a goal to reach and I couldn’t reach it at the pace we were going at that point. It was very important to me to do the 10k in less than 1:23.
I made it in under 1:23, barely. I made it in 1:22.(and some change). When I got to the last 100m or so I all out sprinted, it felt nice to be able to be on my toes and be sprinting. I was very excited to have made it.
My splits, as far as I can tell from my watch were:
Mile 1: 12.39.63
Mile 2: 13.31.69
Mile 3: 14.22.75
Mile 4: 13.06.07
Mile 5: 13.14.65
Mile 6-6.2: 15.51.00
The exciting thing about them is that the timing of them is far more even than the times from when I did the Bolder Boulder. I’m going to take that as a sign of improvement
Diabetes-wise things ran ok. 2 hrs before the run I lowered my basal rate to 70%. I was 126 at this point. An hour before the race I was 117, UH OH! headed in the wrong direction. I let it be though. A half hour before the race, I was 125. I ate a CLIF Builder Bar. Took insulin for only 15 out of the 30 carbs. I washed it down with a bit of e-fuel. I had about 45 carbs in my system at this point. I deemed myself good to go.
At about half way into the run, I checked my blood, I was 164. I was doing ok. When I got to about mile 4.5, I needed to check my blood, my mouth was saying that my blood sugar was high. I had sweaters on my teeth, I was like a cottonmouth snake (actually, do they get their name based on cottony mouths?), I was foaming at the mouth like a dog with rabies. Unfortunately, I had lost my pricker, how I managed that is beyond me, because I had put it back in my little zipper pocket with my machine, and my machine was still there. Needless to say, I didn’t get to check my blood. I steered clear of the e-fuel in my water bottle for fear that I’d been sipping on it too much and not running hard enough to clear it out of my system. I got water when I passed the water stations.
When I got to the end, I was a little bummed because Chunky Monkey ice cream was not in the flavors that were available to us. Only Cherry Garcia and Cookie Dough. I’m not a fan of either one so I just decided to go home without ice cream. When I got to my car and could check my blood again, I did. It was 176. I bolused a little and put a smile on my face because I had run without going low and without going high and I had finished and I had finished a minute faster than the last 10k I ran.
Back in my running shoes
It’s been a month since I’ve done anything that can be considered as training. The last cycling even was on June 1 and was all of 75 miles. I still can’t get back on my bike for another 17 days. It’s killing me. The last running event I did was on May 26th that was a 10k run. I’ve been released by the doctor to begin running again.
I decided that I would ease into it. I was going to run 5 miles. 5 miles isn’t that far, it would be like a walk in the park. Boy was I wrong. I got all of 1.21 miles before 1) my ass was hurting 2) my lungs were burning and 3) I had shin splints.
I think I did what is called an interval. I started out at a pace of 15 min/mile and then after 3 minutes I went to 10 min/mile and then I went back down to 15 min/mile, etc…
I really thought I could just pick up where I left off. I mean, if you really think about it, I was pretty much not running before I did the Bolder Boulder 10k. I’m thinking that running 3 miles in April really doesn’t count as training. So if you really want to have an honest moment with me, then no, I didn’t train for the Bolder Boulder. But I did finish it, all 6.2 miles.
Given that, since it was only maybe a few days longer than a month ago, I should’ve been able to run 5 miles. My head said so. I was ready to go. I’m tired of not doing anything. It’s killing me. My wound spoke otherwise.
It hurts, and it pisses me off. I don’t have time to let it fully heal to where it doesn’t hurt, I’m tired of not doing anything, I’ve got stuff I want to do. Most importantly, I want to be back on my bike! Until then, tomorrow I will try for 2 miles, and I suppose in the name of taking it easy I will do 15 minute miles (which is so incredibly slow and very much not even running).
Bolder Boulder 08
This morning was the Bolder Boulder, a race that has been happening in Boulder, CO for the last 30 years. It’s huge, it’s the largest timed road race in the country, the second largest road race in the country (it’s right behind the Peachtree 10k in Atlanta, GA), and it’s the 5th largest road race in the world in terms of participants. It’s HUGE! There were about 53k runners, and I was one of them. It was all very exciting.
Now, I don’t exactly like running, in fact, I like to say that I hate running. It’s just not as fun as cycling (it takes forever to get to where you’re going and you don’t see as much) or swimming (I’m a fish, I love the water, I used to enjoy swimming, even if it’s been a while since I’ve done it, swimming, in my opinion is better than running), but by the 3k mark of the Bolder Boulder, I was enjoying running.
It was the first time in a long time (actually, it may have been the first time ever) that I was actually in a good place mentally while being athletic, I wasn’t counting down the miles or cursing at the hills, I was enjoying it. And really, I don’t think that’s every happened in the last year in which I’ve been riding, I’m usually in a bad mental spot, I have problems getting out of my head when I’m riding, but I did it today with running. Very exciting for me.
I took off a little fast in the first mile, in fact, by the 1k mark, I was walking because my shins had cramped up. It actually hurt less to run; but because someone very wise told me to listen to my body and not push it too hard because she didn’t want to have to come get me from the medical tent I walked miles 2 and 3. (Plus, I hadn’t really trained to run. The last time I ran was in April and it was all of 3 miles.) After miles 2 and 3, I picked up my pace again, and did decent.
I had a goal of doing 15 minute miles, I figured this was good enough because 1) I hadn’t really trained and 2) I had to do 6 miles (that’s more than what my quasi-training covered by double). As I said, I over did my first mile and walked miles 2 and 3 and then I walked ran miles 4-6.
These were my splits and I’m happy with them. Could I have done better, yes, but that would’ve required that I trained, and I didn’t so these are perfectly good times for me:
| mile 1: | 0:12:20.53 |
| mile 2: | 0:15:04.85 |
| mile 3: | 0:15:02.48 |
| mile 4: | 0:13:21.82 |
| mile 5: | 0:12:25.73 |
| mile 6: | 0:12:46.11 |
| net time: | 1:23:30.72 |
| pace: | 13:27 (based on net time) |
This being my first 10k run, I now have a PR (personal record) of 1:23:30.72 and plenty of room to improve. I know that I need to back off on the first mile, I over did it this time and that forced me to go slower than I would’ve preferred on the second two miles (even if I was close to my 15 min mile goal). If I had gone a little slower, I could’ve probably made it to the end of that mile and kept on running through the next 2, I think I needed to have at least 13:30 min miles in the first 3 and then I could’ve ran closer to the 12 min mile mark for the last 3. My times are all over the place and I would like to see them become more constant.
Also, I need to consciously choose to practice the concept of the Negative Split which is something that Gale Bernhardt discussed with us on Friday night. The Negative Split concept is to start out with the beginning half going slower than you think you ought/want to and then plan to finish fast.
This race was a learning experience, I’ve got an idea of what I need to do to improve and I’m excited. I called a friend to tell her how I did and she said, “now imagine if you had trained how much better you could’ve been. You’ve got the potential to be something great if you’d just train.” That’s not the first time I’ve heard that this week, and now I’m willing to actually put aside my stupidity (at least for a little while) and get serious about training and doing things the right way to see what I can become.